The present invention relates to a high frequency heating apparatus in which an object to be heated is heat-treated with the combination of high frequency and steam, and the inside of a heating chamber soiled by the heat treatment is cleaned.
In a high frequency heating apparatus for heat-treating an object to be heated by high frequency, there are a single function type of performing only high frequency heating and a multi-function type added with an oven function. However, in these pieces of the high frequency heating apparatus, juice or leavings of the object to be heated are sometimes adhered to the inside of a heating chamber for accommodating and heat-treating the object to be heated during heat treatment. When they are left as they are, adherents and burnt deposits are generated to soil the inside of the heating chamber. Such adhered soil causes not only a problem in keeping the inside of the heating chamber hygienic but also a factor that generates smoke in high frequency heating. On this account, the soil inside the heating chamber is removed by cleaning the inside of the heating chamber frequently or by a high temperature burning function provided in the heating apparatus itself.
However, cleaning the inside of the heating chamber is bothersome work, and the adhered soil is hard to be cleaned. A neutral detergent is sometimes used when soil is severe. In this case, a sufficient wipe is needed to cause the cleaning work to be harder. In addition, when cleaning is performed by the high temperature burning function, it is often difficult to remove the adhered soil completely even though a part of the soil is decomposed to remove odors, which inevitably depends on manual work in the end.
In the meantime, a cleaning method of obtaining excellent washability is known that a container with water is placed in a heating chamber for high frequency heating, steam is filled inside the heating chamber to loosen the soil adhered to the inside of the heating chamber by the steam, and then the chamber is cleaned. However, when the inside of the heating chamber of the high frequency heating apparatus is cleaned by this cleaning method, effort is needed to put water in a heatproof container and to place it in the heating chamber every time when cleaning, and the heating apparatus has to be monitored until steam is filled, which is not usable.
Furthermore, some pieces of high frequency heating apparatus with steam generation function for supplying steam to the heating chamber are proposed. However, all of the heating apparatus generate steam used for heating the object to be heated, not for cleaning the heating chamber. Therefore, there is no high frequency heating apparatus with steam generation function having an automatic cleaning function programmed for cleaning the heating chamber. In other words, the usability in cleaning is not excellent.
Moreover, in a steam generating part of the high frequency heating apparatus with steam generation function, calcium and magnesium in moisture are concentrated in the process of generating steam, and are precipitated and fixed to the bottom of a vaporizing part or the inside of a pipe for water supply. Then, an amount of steam generated is reduced. Consequently, a problem is arisen to cause a dirty environment where mold is easily propagated. Particularly, in the configuration in which the vaporizing part for generating steam is embedded in the inaccessible portion under the heating chamber, in addition to the problem, there is a problem that it is hard to do the work to clean the periphery of the heating chamber.